|
Yemen protesters reject US-backed transition
[Pak Daily Times] Yemen's protest movement on Sunday insisted on the quick exit of President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ... after his ruling party accepted a Gulf plan for him to quit in 30 days in a move hailed by Washington. The United States had urged a peaceful transition after Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party said late Saturday it accepted a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) plan under which he would quit following months of protests. However, The emphatic However... Saleh himself said any change of regime can only be through "ballot boxes and referendums," and said he could not give into a 'coup'. "You call on me from the US and Europe to hand over power," Saleh told BBC in an interview. "Who shall I hand it over to. Those who are trying to make a coup? No. We will do it through ballot boxes and referendums." The opposition Peaceful Change Revolution issued a statement reiterating its rejection of the Gulf plan and demanded that Saleh be prosecuted, contrary to the GCC proposal which calls for immunity. "The committee... utterly rejects any initiative that would not stipulate the departure of Saleh and his family (from power) and putting him and his staff on trial," it said. The Gulf plan would see Saleh submit his resignation to parliament 30 days after tasking the opposition with forming a "national accord government" shared equally between the GPC and the opposition. Posted by: Fred 2011-04-25 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=321146 |